Friday, December 30, 2016

Happy Friday, peeps! As I am sitting here posting this, there are little tiny white flakes fluttering outside...I know there are some areas that are getting buried in snow, but we haven't had a thing! Anyway, we are having DH's family Christmas tomorrow, along with two birthdays, so here is another birthday card; this one uses the Can You Case It sketch...I haven't played with them for a while!

I thought this was going to be a simple card, but I kept adding stuff to it! I chose yellow and gray as my color palette...here we go:

I used Perfectly Wrapped and Jar of Love for my stamping, along with several stitched and scalloped dies:

Thursday, December 29, 2016

Hi everyone! I am a little late posting today....I starting a knitting project and the rest of my crafts have faded into the background, LOL! But I roused myself and used the Match the Sketch sketch and the beautiful Create with Connie & Mary colors for a birthday card for my MIL:

I started with a thick white cardstock base....I already had this one scored, but I used it anyway...the fold is on the side, but that's okay! I have been intrigued with the creations I have seen in blogland where images are stamped very faintly in a light color, then watercolored, I'll show you my first project later in the post, but for this card, I stamped the flowers from Touches of Texture in Smoky Slate, then watercolored them with Flirty Flamingo and Pool Party inks:

I also stamped the speckles and lace image in Pool Party, then heat embossed part of the birthday sentiment from Cottage Greetings in white, and added the "happy" in FF, stamped on a Stitched Shapes oval:

It's difficult to see, but I also added some silver thread behind the sentiment and a little sliver of silver glimmer paper to the banner. My final touch was a dragonfly, colored, cut out and popped up:

And here is the inside:

Now, here is my first attempt at this technique. My Big Shot plates, which I have since tried to flatten out, were so warped that my die slipped, and I did not get a good cut, but I wanted to show you this little snowman from Jar of Cheer anyway:

Here's the final result....not the best, but still cute and I want to try it again! Thanks for popping in today!

Just a few shots from Christmas morning:

Cassidy only asked for a couple of things for Christmas, and a "doll that looks like a reel baby" was one of them.....can you tell she was excited about receiving it? Love the look on her face!

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Happy Wednesday, peeps! It is never easy to lose a loved one, but to lose one on Christmas is especially difficult. My dear friend lost her aunt on Christmas day, and since I already had my Floral Boutique papers out on my desk, I used the Hand Stamped Sentiments sketch for a sympathy card. Here's the sketch:

And here is my card:

I used a white card base with a Night of Navy banner; a sentiment from Flourishing Phrases, and diecuts from Flourish thinlets; I diecut two small leaves from vellum to tuck behind the sentiment.

Thanks for popping in today!

I thought I would show you some photos from our church, decorated for Christmas. But first, two of my little helpers from Christmas eve! We have a candlelight service, so I usually recruit some children to pass out the candles (battery-operated for the wee ones!) and the programs. Here is Cassidy with her friend Joel (who is quite a character, I might add, as well as one very smart young man!). He was in charge of the candles, she the programs!:

We have two poinsettia trees on either side of the stage/pulpit as well as a Nativity:

Window wreaths and candles:

We have a large sanctuary that is actually the upstairs of our building; to the left, you see part of the balcony. It was said that in the olden days (the building is from the 1800s), the elders would sit in the balcony and keep watch out the windows in case of an Indian attack!!! Not sure if that's true, but it makes for a fun story to tell our children! There are four large windows with shutters on each side of the sanctuary; on the pews, we put up candlesticks decorated with burlap and greenery and more wreaths between the windows. Guess who puts up those wreaths? My dear hubby, with a great big long pole!!! It's quite a sight!

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Happy Tuesday, peeps! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday! We are still winding down slowly...I had some free time after chores yesterday morning to get to my craft room to do some cleaning up and weeding out! I rewarded myself by making a few cards using some leftover bits that had been sitting on my desk! Since they are Christmas leftover bits, you'll still be seeing some holiday cards for a few more days, LOL!

I had been playing around with this Nativity die from Sugar Peas Designs and some Floral Boutique DSP and came up with this:

I used two Stitched Shapes Framelits, some silver ribbon from the Holiday catalog and a silver glimmer star punched with an old SU punch. I stamped the sentiment (Good Greetings) in Silver encore ink, then embossed it with silver embossing powder. Simple and pretty! And so "Nativity" and "Night of Navy" fit the "N" challenge.

I have a few Christmas pix to share over the next few weeks, but I thought this one was cute; Cassidy was allowed to wear pajamas to school on the 23rd, so Mommy got her this cute set:

I am not sure who's cuter, the deer or Santa's little helper!!! Have a blessed day!

Sunday, December 25, 2016

Luke 2:8-14:

8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

Thursday, December 22, 2016

Happy Thursday, peeps! It's winding down to the big day and I probably won't be posting too many things until after the holiday, but I did want to squeeze in a card I made for an upcoming family birthday. I used the theme from SUO Challenges, which is to use circles, ovals or squares on my card, and since the FMS sketch was square, I thought it would work well:

Amy O'Neill used some pretty Project Life cards on her card (you can see it here), and I thought that would be a great idea for mine as well, since I just got this Hello Lovely set, and I just love these colors:

Both panels are from the PL set; the numbers were cut with the Large Numbers die in Crisp Cantaloupe, and the sentiment is from Cheer All Year, stamped in Tip Top Taupe. I embossed the Soft Sky base with the Perfect Polkadots embossing folder, then added a few sequins from the November Paper Pumpkin kit.

Thanks for visiting today!

We were all sitting around the table after dinner a couple nights ago and Cassidy got a little piece of paper and a Sharpie (her favorite writing utensil) and wrote a little note and stuck it in her Advent box. Dana questioned her about it and she told her she was writing the elves a note:

"Dear elfs, I'm getting tired of getting stickers. But I like you still!" Dana and I just cracked up! She gets stickers, an occasional piece of candy and sometimes a little toy. But apparently she is not too happy with the stickers!!! Ralph the elf wrote her a note back and apologized:

and the next day, she got a big ornament full of bubble bath:

Really, I don't think she's ungrateful; the look is because she had no CLUE what it was!!! Now she can't wait to have her bath so she can bubble up! But we did remind her that the Advent gifts are small; she'll get bigger gifts on Christmas! But we might have created a monster! Maybe next year we'll just do one of those little calendars with the tiny little windows that open up!

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Happy Tuesday again, peeps! If you're looking for my TSOT post, it's here. Today is my last challenge for the Stamp Ink Paper team, and Justin has a great one for us....forced me out of my Christmas card-making endless loop:

I just got some SAB goodies...yes, it's coming up to that time of the year! In fact, I have a whole box of goodies that I haven't even delved into yet...too much Christmas going on! But I did pull out Delicate Details and So Very Much, because I needed a thank-you card for a new customer. Here we go:

Sweet Sugarplum is such a pretty shade, so I decided to create my card using it as my card base. I stamped the sentiment in white craft ink and embossed it with white embossing powder, then added some details from Awesomely Artistic, stamping right over top of the embossing:

and Delicate Details (LOVE this new set!):

And finally, I stamped a bird from Best Birds on thick white cardstock, diecut it out and added some very loose, light watercoloring with Sweet Sugarplum and Smoky Slate inks and an aquapainter:

I just love this little guy! I hope you'll play with our challenge this week...I know it's a crazy time of the year but maybe you can squeeze in one more challenge! Hope to see you at SIP!

We FINALLY got our tree up, although if this tree lasts until December 25, it will be a Christmas miracle. It drops its needles if you just LOOK at it. The dustbuster is a permanent fixture, plugged in and ready to use each & every day! I am almost convinced to go artificial next year!

About Me

I am a SU demonstrator who loves all kinds of papercrafts as well as crosswords, knitting, cross stitch and sewing. My sweet hubby John patiently puts up with all of my crafting! I also have a beautiful daughter Dana, a cute SIL Wayne, and a sweet granddaughter Cassidy who brings us joy and laughter! We are a Christian family and strive to glorify the Lord in all we do. You can reach me at leanne.pugliese@gmail.com